Everyone Has A Breaking Point
by Knight of Kanto
Summary: Ariana Shepard saved the galaxy twice however her warnings of the Reapers imminent arrival were ignored. When the Reapers arrive and the people need Shepard they find that even the mightiest of hero's can give up. Will someone be able to bring back the old Shepard so she can save the galaxy again or will she standby as the Reapers destroy everything? ON PERMANENT HIATUS.
1. A Broken Hero

Hi everyone, this is just an idea I had floating around in my head for a while now and I thought that I might as well write I and upload it. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect if I did the ending to Mass Effect 3 would be a million times better.

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Ariana Shepard stared blankly out of the large window of her cell and saw a little boy playing on a rooftop with what looked to be some kind of Alliance Ship. There was a time when a simple sight like this would make her smile however those days had long since passed mainly due to her being stuck in this prison in Vancouver for over six months. She heard the door of her cell hiss open and decided to see who had entered even though she was certain it was just that idiot Vega bringing her some food. She was proven wrong though when she saw that it was Anderson who had walked into her cell.

"What do you want Anderson?" Shepard asked tiredly.

Anderson stayed quiet for a moment as he took a quick glance over Shepard; he was worried to see that she was much thinner than when she arrived six months ago. He then spotted the tray of untouched food that was on the table mere inches away from Shepard. What concerned him more was her eyes that no longer shone with optimism and determination instead they were dull and lifeless as though they had long since given up on living. The look unnerved Anderson however; he pushed aside those feeling of unease and remembered why he had come here.

"Shepard, the Council wants to see you. They need to talk to you about the Reapers." Anderson said.

"Reapers? What are Reapers?" Shepard replied.

Anderson's eyes widened at Shepard's response, six months ago he would have assumed it was a joke however he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was not joking.

"Shepard why are you acting like this?"

"Do you seriously need to ask that? I have been trapped in this prison for six months and fifteen days after I gave myself up. I tried warning them when I first got here that the Reapers were coming, I spent a month using the brief moments I had with any of the Councillors trying to convince them that if we didn't start preparing we were doomed. However, none of them would listen. When that month ended, I started to hear rumours thanks to the guards outside saying how I was an unstable, Batarian hating murderer. That was when I decided that I had had enough of all this bullshit. I saved the galaxy twice and I get nothing but disrespect and contempt from the people who should be thanking me for saving their worthless asses."

Anderson was about to reply when suddenly the building shook and the sounds of several large object slamming into the ground echoed through the building. Anderson and Shepard immediately turned their gaze to the window and looked outside as several Reapers landed on the ground and started destroying anything near them. A look of horror formed on Anderson's face while the same blank expression she had been wearing for so long remained on Shepard's face.

"So it begins." Shepard murmured.

Shepard stood up from her chair and went to her bed; she looked underneath and spotted what she was looking for. She pulled it out and stared at the bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy in her hand, which she managed to smuggle in with her when she they incarcerated her. She had been intending to save the bottle for some kind of special occasion but since her death was standing only a few hundred metres away, she thought that she might as well drink it now.

She sat back down, took both of the glasses off the breakfast tray, and tipped the contents on the floor. She then filled the glasses up with the brandy and placed the second glass in front of the spare chair.

"Take a seat Anderson. You'll get a fantastic view of those non-existent Reapers as they start to destroy the galaxy."

Anderson looked at Shepard with the same horrified look on his face; he could not believe that she would say something like that so casually.

"This is no time for jokes Shepard. Now get up and come with me!" Anderson commanded.

Shepard ignored Anderson and downed her glass, she then poured a second and continued to watch the Reapers destroy buildings; she wasn't fazed by the sight of Vancouver being demolished or by the sounds of people screaming as they saw the Reaper lasers killing their friends and family. She had seen her squad be killed in several slower and far more painful ways on Akuze so this didn't bother her as much as it probably should have done.

"Come on Shepard the galaxy needs you. You're the only one who can stop the Reapers." Anderson pleaded.

"No. The galaxy needs Commander Shepard, The Saviour of the Citadel and that is not me, not anymore. Now I'm just Ariana so either sit down and have a drink with me or fuck off."

Something inside Anderson snapped at that and he yanked Shepard off her chair and threw her over his shoulder. She weakly pounded against him and demanded to be put down however her weakened state meant that she was no match for Anderson's strength.

"You are coming with me whether you like it or not and you are going to save everyone because you are Commander fucking Shepard and that's what you do."

Shepard sighed in resignation, as she knew that there was no way she could get out of this or convince Anderson to let her stay. Anderson turned around to head out of the room, which allowed Shepard to reach out and grab her bottle of brandy, she took a swig of it and then dropped it as Anderson started running through the building.

"You owe me a bottle of fucking brandy." Shepard said bitterly.

"I'll buy you one after we defeat the Reapers." Anderson replied.

Shepard sighed again as she knew that she was never going to get that brandy, she looked out of the windows watching as the Reapers gradually tore their way through Vancouver. The Normandy suddenly shot by and Shepard saw the ship fire a barrage of missiles at the ground, which wiped out a large group of husks.

Anderson then burst through the back door of the building and he saw the Normandy waiting for him. He quickly ran over to the ship and when the hanger bay was open, he carried Shepard on to the ship.

"Well at least I'll get to say I told you so to the Council." Shepard thought as she watched Vancouver fade from view.

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Notes

I hope you all enjoyed that, please leave a review saying what you liked/didn't liked so I can see what I need to improve on.


	2. The journey to Mars

Hi everyone, I want to thank for reading chapter 1 and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

Special thanks goes to RevolvingAbyss who was kind enough to leave a review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect if I did the ending to Mass Effect 3 would be a million times better.

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As the hangar bay doors closed, Ariana sighed in annoyance as Anderson carried her through the hangar bay to the elevator. She looked over her shoulder and watched him press the button to take them to the loft, which was a relief for Ariana as she had been worried that he would drop her off either in the cockpit or in the mess hall so she would be forced to talk to the crew.

After what seemed like hours, the elevator dinged and the door opened, Anderson then took her into the Captain's quarter and dropped her on the couch. Ariana grumbled at her mentor as she picked herself up and heard the door to her quarters hiss open, she looked towards the door and saw Anderson staring sternly at her.

"I need to speak with Admiral Hackett about the war with the Reapers. When I come back I expect you to have thought of something we can do to defeat the Reapers."

Anderson then walked out of the room leaving Ariana alone, she looked around her quarters and saw that not only had her fish been taken they had also removed all of the model ships she had built. An annoyed growl passed from her lips as she had spent a lot of time building those and ships and carefully choosing those fish. Her eyes were then drawn to her liquor cabinet that sat next to her bed, she hoped that the alliance had not emptied it but she was almost certain that they had. She opened the cabinet and she was not surprised to see it was empty.

"Dammit there was some good shit in there." Ariana grumbled.

Ariana angrily slammed the door shut incredibly hard, which almost made it fall off its hinges. The force made the picture stood on top of it fall over and had it not been for Ariana's quick reflexes it would have smashed on the ground. She stared at the picture of her lover and just hoped that they were somewhere safe, far from where the Reapers had attacked. She placed the picture down and stared around her barren room noticing that without her lover's presence the room felt so much emptier.

"So they take my fish, model ships and my booze but not a picture. Why would Alliance do that?"

"They would be mine and Jeff's doing Commander. Jeff salvaged the picture before the Alliance could take it." A female robotic voice answered.

"EDI is that you?" Ariana replied.

"Yes Commander."

"I'm glad to hear your voice. I was sure that the Alliance was going to remove you or at least shackle you again."

"Had I behaved like an AI they probably would have however Jeff instructed me to act as a simply VI so I was overlooked as they refitted the Normandy."

"Before anyone says it I know I'm a genius." Joker suddenly interrupted.

"Hey Joker."

"Hey Commander it's great to have you back on the Normandy." Joker said enthusiastically.

"Yeah." Ariana mumbled back weakly.

"By the way as a welcome home present there is a surprise for you in the box you kept your grenades in."

"Thank you Joker. Can I have a bit of time on my own now?"

"Sure Commander we can catch up later."

The transmission to EDI and Joker cut out, Ariana opened the draw beneath where she kept her armour and found a bottle of Vodka. She took the bottle of vodka out of the draw, over to the couch and sat down. She took the cap off and had a swig of it; a grimace appeared on her face as the liquid burned in her throat. She ignored the burning sensation and took another gulp, she did not really care what it tasted like, and at the end of the day, it was booze, which she hadn't been able to drink for over six months.

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A few minutes later Anderson returned to the cabin and immediately wondered where that bottle had come from considering they had specifically combed the room for anything Shepard could have hidden things. Anderson decided to ask that question later and he stormed over to Shepard and grabbed the bottle before she could take another drink.

"Alright you listen to me Shepard, you are going to lead Galaxy to victory against the Reapers whether you like it or not and we're going to start by making a detour to Mars. I need you to suit up and go down to the planet."

Shepard quickly snatched the bottle back out of Anderson's grasp and took another drink.

"Why the hell should I do that?" Shepard replied half-heartedly.

"Dr T'Soni discovered plans for a Prothean device in the Mars records that could help against the Reapers and we need to take both her and the plans to the Council."

"I fail to see why I need to go down to Mars. You can just go down and pick Liara up, it's not that difficult."

"I need you to go down because Cerberus forces have been spotted entering the Mars base."

"Liara's strong enough to deal with a few Cerberus soldiers."

"There are at ten shuttles worth of troops. Do you think she can deal with all of them?"

Shepard growled in annoyance and slammed the bottle of vodka down on the table; she got up off the sofa and walked over to her closet. She opened it and started putting on her N7 armour. Anderson watched Shepard pulling her armour out and felt a little hope that Shepard had not given up as she had said, maybe the galaxy was not doomed after all.

"Thank you Shepard."

"Don't thank me Anderson. I'm doing this because I want to save Liara not because of your futile war with the Reapers."

"I-I understand. Ashley and Vega are already suited up and will follow you on Mars."

"No I'll go alone." Shepard replied.

"You will not, you will take Ashley and Vega with you. That's an order!" Anderson yelled back

"So first of all you force me to go down to Mars and now you're forcing me to take Ashley who thinks I'm a traitor and the idiotic super steroid soldier with me. No fucking way, I'm going down alone, they can come down to Mars if you want but they are not with me."

Before Anderson could reply, Ariana put on the last piece of her armour and stomped out of the cabin. She punched the button on the elevator to take her to the armoury, which she had noticed was now in the hangar bay for some reason.

The elevator doors opened after what felt like an eternity and she headed straight for her three favourite guns however, she was disappointed when out of her favourite guns she only found the M-6 Carnifex Hand Cannon. It didn't really surprise her though since the other two guns were rarer and only available through either N7 or Spectre requisitions. She decided to choose the next best things and picked up the M-92 Mantis and the M-27 Scimitar.

Once Ariana picked up a few extra grenades and made sure she, had full Medi-Gel supplies she headed to the shuttle and was unfortunately met by Vega and Ashley. The former had a stupid grin on his face while the later wouldn't even look at her. Ariana ignored the two and banged on the door to get the pilot's attention, the doors to the shuttle then closed and the ship flew out of the hanger bay. Ariana looked down at the planet and just prayed that she would be there in time to save Liara.

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Notes

I hope you all enjoyed that, please leave a review saying what you liked/didn't liked so I can see what I need to improve on.


	3. First Blood

Hi, everyone thanks for reading the first 2 chapter. I hope you will continue to enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect if I did the ending to Mass Effect 3 would be a million times better.

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Ariana stared out of the window as the shuttle flew down to the surface of Mars doing her best to ignore Ashley and Vega. She could feel the tension in the shuttle, it was so thick that it could be cut with a knife however Ariana didn't care about that she was fully focussed on getting down to Mars and saving Liara.

A few minutes later Shepard saw the surface of the planet come into view, she felt relief flood through her, as she would be able to get out of this shuttle and kill some Cerberus troops. There was a slight thud as the shuttle landed on the planet, the impact created a small dust cloud around the shuttle, which shrouded the planet from view. While Ariana waited for the dust to settle she put her helmet on.

"Commander we've landed on the planet." The pilot informed.

"No shit Sherlock." Ariana muttered.

Ariana heard Vega try to stifle a snicker however; he failed miserably and burst out laughing which only annoyed Ariana more than she already was. She was getting desperate to take her anger out on something and if the damn shuttle door did not open soon Vega would be the victim of her rage. Thankfully, the shuttle door opened which revealed the barren surface of Mars, in the distance she could see the base where the Mars records were.

Ariana leapt out of the shuttle and landed on the surface, she heard two thuds behind her as Vega and Ashely joined her on the planet. Ariana looked over her shoulder at the pair, she could see that Ashley was staring at her in disapproval presumably, over what she just said and even though she couldn't see his face, Ariana knew that Vega was grinning like an idiot.

"I'm right behind you Commander." Vega said.

"You won't be in a minute though." Ariana replied.

Before Vega could ask what she meant Ariana sprinted away from him and Ashley, they both quickly chased after Shepard but they were unable to follow her when she sent a blast of biotic energy at the ground and launched herself on to a plateau. They watched Shepard do the same thing to fire herself over to another plateau that put her out of view. Ashley and Vega exchanged a glance and then started charging towards the Mars base hoping that they'd catch up with Shepard.

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Ariana landed on the final plateau before the Mars base, looked behind her, and was pleased to see that there was no sign of Ashley or Vega. She turned her attention to the front of the base and spotted several shuttles outside the entrance to the Mars base. She pulled her 92-Mantis her back and stared down the scope hoping to get a better look at what she was going to have to deal with.

"Twelve shuttles worth of troops and they've only left four behind to defend their shuttles and stop anyone from entering the base." Ariana mumbled to herself.

Ariana aimed her sights on one of the Cerberus soldiers and squeezed the trigger; a satisfied smirk appeared on her face as she saw the soldier slump to the floor with blood pouring out of the hole her shot had made in his helmet. The three remaining soldiers crowded around the dead one and started looking around the area trying to spot whoever fired the shot. Ariana chuckled as she saw the soldiers group up while they continued to scan the area.

"This is just too easy."

Ariana retracted the Mantis and placed back on her back; she set her sights on one of the soldiers and summoned her biotic powers so she could use her favourite ability. After a few moments, she charged across the surface and slammed into one of the soldiers, which sent him flying into the distance. The shockwaves created by her slamming into the soldier knocked the two remaining men down, one of the soldiers got up quickly and went to aim his assault rifle at Shepard however, he stopped when he felt something penetrate his armour and bury itself into his gut. The soldier looked down and saw that a glowing orange Omni-blade had pierced him. He looked up and saw the owner of the blade glaring at him; he let out a gargled scream as Ariana twisted the blade inside him, which shredded his organs.

Ariana yanked the blade from his stomach and he fell to his knees as his guts poured out of the massive wound. She then swept her arm in an arc which sliced through the soldiers throat and blood spewed from his neck as his severed head landed on the ground and rolled away.

Ariana watched the body hit the ground and then she staggered forward as a concussive shot slammed into her back. She turned around and glared at the soldier who had fired the round, the man was desperately trying to reload before the death machine in front of him would make him join the three dead soldiers. His hands were shaking violently as the woman slowly walked towards him with hatred in her eyes. Due to his shaking, he dropped the round and at that moment, he knew that he was fucked, moments later Ariana was able to rip the weapon away from the soldier and she tossed it effortlessly over her shoulder.

"P-please d-don't kill me." The man begged.

"You made your bed when you joined Cerberus, now you have to lie in it."

The soldier's eyes widened in fear and he threw his right fist at Shepard's head in a desperate attempt to save himself. Ariana easily stopped the punch and then slammed her fist into the man's helmet, which sent him crashing to the ground. He put a hand to his helmet as a skull-splitting headache plagued him; he then looked up only to see the barrel of a shotgun pointing straight at him. Ariana squeezed the trigger and the man's head exploded in a shower of blood, bone and flesh, which coated her armour in gore.

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The sounds of two pairs of armoured boots behind her drew Ariana's attention; she quickly turned around with her shotgun ready to blow them away however, she lowered her gun when she saw that it was Ashley and Vega. Ariana ignored the pair who were staring at the corpses surrounding her; she entered the Mars base and Ashley and Vega who had snapped out of their shock when they heard the doors to the base open were right behind her.

The doors closed behind the trio, the depressurisation process started, and after a minute, it ended. Ariana took off her helmet and she turned around to see the Ashley and Vega still looking at her with shocked expressions.

"What's wrong with you two?" Ariana snapped.

"That was a bit… extreme don't you think Commander." Vega said.

"He was part of Cerberus, he deserved whatever he got." Ariana replied.

"Shepard do you know what Cerberus are doing here?" Ashley asked.

"No I don't. Why would I?" Ariana replied.

"You worked for them for a long time; it's just hard to believe that you cut ties just like that." Ashley said.

Shepard growled angrily and threw her helmet on the floor making it crack as it slammed into the metal. She then stormed over to Ashley and punched her in the face, the force behind the blow sent Ashley crashing to the floor and she held her throbbing cheek wondering whether anything was broken. Ashley looked up at Shepard and saw that she was sending her the same hateful glare that she had sent at Saren just before putting a bullet in his skull.

"I'm sick to death of this same old shit Ashley. I am not working for Cerberus and I never did. I worked with them to take down the Collectors since no other fucker wanted to help me. There is nothing I'd like more than to put a bullet in the Illusive man's smug face."

Ariana stormed away from Ashley before she could say anything in response, she didn't care about any apologies or excuses Ashley had. She only cared about saving Liara and getting the hell off this barren rock.

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Notes

I hope you all enjoyed that, please leave a review saying what you liked/didn't liked so I can see what I need to improve on.


	4. Merry Christmas

Hey everyone, Merry Christmas to every single one of you.

I'm sorry for my long absence, work, scouts &amp; Youtube has taken up a lot of my time (Special thanks to Eliphas-Chaos who actually checked out my YouTube channel – I honestly didn't expect any of my readers to do that so I really wanted to thank Eliphas for doing that.) I do intend to finish the next chapter of the Return of the Betrayed Guardian in the New Year and after that I'm not sure what story I will look to update next.

I really appreciate all the support you have given me since I started writing, some of you have been with me from my very first chapter and i really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking by me and supporting me. You guys are in my opinion the best group of readers anyone could ask for on this site, you are all very patient and very supportive.

Thank you all once again, I hope you've had an awesome Christmas and I'll see you in the New Year.

Knight of Kanto


	5. The End

Hello my fellow fanfic lovers,

This will in all likelihood be my final post on this site (apart from any reviews I leave). I am sorry to say that I just don't have time in my life for writing fanfics anymore. This isn't a decision I've made lightly, I have tried my hardest to find the time to continue but I just don't have the time. It deeply saddens me to say this as fanfic writing became a huge part of me, it helped me get through my darkest days caused by me epilepsy and writing gave me confidence in myself which I had lost a long time ago.

All of my stories are officially up for adoption and I leave them for anyone to continue if they want. I will read the odd story every now and then so if you do take on one of my stories tell me and I shall read what you upload.

I want to thank each and every one of you one last time for the amazing support you have given me over the years. Whether you've follower/favourited/reviewed or PM'd me I have appreciated everything. I just hope that I have inspired some of you to write your ideas down and I really do hope your stories get all the love and support that mine have.

Thank you all once again for the memories, I love you all.

Best wishes to you all,

Knight of Kanto.

xxx


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